Knowledge is contagious

[TallulahGreen]

I think the thing smokers ought to do is make a twice-weekly visit to the pulmonary ward of a large hospital and just observe the patients there. That'd change their minds fast. It's not pretty to watch people in the end stages of smoking-related diseases.

Good for you for not smoking, Tallulah! I wish everyone could be persuaded not to do it. It's such an easy way to prevent premature death. And, for that matter, to prevent premature aging, too.

Good luck even trying to convince a smoker to do that even in the first place. They don't really want to believe that that is a reality. It is easy to have that "Oh that won't happen to me" mentality. Reality is a bitch...
My mom has been smoking since she was 18 years old....it really makes me sad to know that if Lupus doesn't kill her than cigarettes might. I am really sorry your mother is suffering with emphasyma(I can't spell that word)....you seem to have to deal with some terrible things....You are a strong woman though, and I admire you-you are a really helpful and caring person and I appreciate you here on the boards. As we all do!!!! :jointsmile:

[MastaChronic]

aight aight, my bad. i cant provide any ground for my claims to stand on (i have no idea where to find the fda paper on it) so for the mean time birdgirl, you win. all i can remember on this subject is i learned this from an educational tv show (i think) called "bullshit!". the hosts are a fat guy in a pony tail and a skinny guy. the tv show is supposed to disprove misinformation and a link to the website to watch it was posted on here a while ago, but i cant remember the name of it nor the poster. maybe someone else remembers..... but, you have won this battle for the mean time birdgirl, you have won.
i will say this tho, maybe its because your lungs were still developing and they were exposed constantly to smoke, just smoke in general.
actually, personally, i would love to watch people suffer in the pulmonary ward and if i ever end up there i will enjoy watching the suffering of them 24/7 while i slowly die, but thats just me.

[birdgirl73]

Thanks for the kind words, Tallulah. Props to you, too, my friend!

My mom luckily stopped smoking about 20 years ago. And all was going fine until just last year, when she got emphysema anyway. That caught us all by surprise. We didn't know the disease could come on years later like that, especially after two smoke-free decades. Luckily, they caught it early and it's not too bad. But she doesn't take her medicines or use her inhalers like she's supposed to. Plus she has sleep apnea, which doesn't help things. My mom's like an irresponsible kid when it comes to her health. She's why I'm so compulsive about my own health. I plan to live to be 120. So I can preach to all my generations of grandchildren, great-grandchildren and great-great-grandchildren about the evils of cigarette smoking . . .

You know what it was that persuaded my mom to quit smoking? A friend of hers died of emphysema and she saw what the friend went through there at the end in the hospital. I truly think that'd be an effective deterrent to lots of people. Someone ought to make short videos of people with end-stage emphysema and lung cancer and put those on the Web. We'd make some headway with that sort of in-your-face information.

[birdgirl73]

i will say this tho, maybe its because your lungs were still developing and they were exposed constantly to smoke, just smoke in general.

You're right about that part, MastaC. I'm sure it was because I was a growing child. The strange thing is my two sisters also grew up in the same house with our mom, and they didn't have asthma or a tendency toward bronchitis as badly as I did, but the doctor always theorized that I was just the one who was more susceptible to lung trouble.

[Purple Banana]

Those Truth commercials get on my nerves, though. Do you think some 30 year old smoker sees one of those commercials for the first time, and in shock, gasps: Cigarettes KILL people?!

It's a waste of money and time; they act like people who smoke are 100% victims of malicious tobacco companies. THEY chose to smoke. More power to them if they want to quit. Just don't smoke in front of me, damnit.

Suing the tobacco companies for giving you lung cancer, if you're a smoker is like suing McDonalds for being fat.

I work on a cardiopulmonary floor, and hacking people, both old and young, has always turned me away from cigarettes. It's pathetic seeing these people in bare hospital gowns, hacking their lungs out and going outside in 30 degree weather with their IV poles to smoke outside. Plus, that whole "do 25 jumping jacks, then breathe through a coffee stirrer and that's like emphysema" thing in 3rd grade scared me shitless.

[TallulahGreen]

Those Truth commercials get on my nerves, though. Do you think some 30 year old smoker sees one of those commercials for the first time, and in shock, gasps: Cigarettes KILL people?!

It's a waste of money and time; they act like people who smoke are 100% victims of malicious tobacco companies. THEY chose to smoke. More power to them if they want to quit. Just don't smoke in front of me, damnit.

Suing the tobacco companies for giving you lung cancer, if you're a smoker is like suing McDonalds for being fat.

I work on a cardiopulmonary floor, and hacking people, both old and young, has always turned me away from cigarettes. It's pathetic seeing these people in bare hospital gowns, hacking their lungs out and going outside in 30 degree weather with their IV poles to smoke outside. Plus, that whole "do 25 jumping jacks, then breathe through a coffee stirrer and that's like emphysema" thing in 3rd grade scared me shitless.

I don't necessarily think that those commercials are directed towards adults. I think they are trying to prevent young people from starting in the first place. I think they are great and probably make an impact on young people.

[Lethal G]

Both primary and second-hand cigarette smoke are very dangerous, I have asthma and a tendency toward bronchitis and pneumonia because I grew up in the house with a smoking mom.

Seems we have something in common, birdgirl. I was actually born three months premature and have chronic asthma as a result. Both of my parents were heavy smokers when I was younger (and quite frankly, they still are), and my mom even admitted to smoking while she was pregnant with me. What makes this situation quite ironic is that my mom is a registered nurse.

The doctors told me that I should have grown out of my asthma by now, but no luck. They think I either have a genetic predisposition towards asthma, or that my parents really did smoke too heavily around me as a small child.

[Perp]

all i can remember on this subject is i learned this from an educational tv show (i think) called "bullshit!". the hosts are a fat guy in a pony tail and a skinny guy.

Sounds like Penn and Teller

[MastaChronic]

Sounds like Penn and Teller

YES! that was it, thank you!

[Purple Banana]

Oh gawd, Penn and Teller are great- you used to be able to find all their episodes on video.google.com, but now the bastards are charging people to view copyrighted videos...

Enjoy YouTube now, because when Google takes it over this summer, it's going to be severly limited.

I agree that Truth does have somewhat of an impact on the younger audiences, but the commercials are still kind of cheesy. My little sisters think they're stupid, and I told them to NEVER smoke cigarettes. Hopefully they'll listen.